Prof. Bruce Stinebrickner "Reconsiders" View of Early Balloting After Trip to Iowa

January 8, 2008

January 8, 2008, Greencastle, Ind. - "Even if one accepts the desirability of would-be presidents engaging in small-state 'retail politics' at the outset of the nomination process, I have hardly been alone in doubting the wisdom of allowing Iowa and New Hampshire such primacy," writes Bruce Stinebrickner, professor of political science at DePauw University, in Greencastle's Banner-Graphic. "My experiences in Iowa last week gave me reason to reconsider." In an op-ed column, Dr. Stinebrickner writes of a three-day visit in which he saw citizens deeply engaged in the political process.

"As pundits and candidates repeatedly suggest, the Iowans whom we met approached their state's first-in-the-nation role thoughtfully and conscientiously," he writes. "In turn, rotating the early delegate selection processes among different states in different presidential years might not be such a good idea. Could we reasonably expect citizens of any two states that replaced Iowa and New Hampshire in 2012 to evaluate candidates as thoroughly as the Iowans we saw in action in 2008?"

A companion editorial by Aden Stinebrickner-Kauffman, son of Stinebrickner and Kelsey Kauffman, part-time assistant professor of University studies, also appears in the Banner-Graphic. In it, Stinebrickner-Kauffman offers his own take on the trip to Iowa with his father, asserting that he "was impressed by the many conscientious and thorough Iowan caucus participants."

An introduction to the op-eds notes that Dr. Stinebrickner and his son also had an opportunity in Iowa to meet with Bill Clinton, who was a college classmate of the professor while both attended Georgetown University in the 1960s.

Last year, Bruce Stinebrickner was named to Georgetown's "all-century" basketball team. Learn more in this previous story.